


Better Man

by sinecure



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AU, Angst and Humor, Gen, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-23
Updated: 2010-08-23
Packaged: 2017-10-11 05:18:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/108829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinecure/pseuds/sinecure
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor finds out the affects his actions have had on Rose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Better Man

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** Better Man  
> **Character/Pairing:** Ten/Rose  
> **Rating:** All ages. Angst  
> **Summary:** The Doctor finds out the affects his actions have had on Rose.  
> **Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who. _(insert witty reason, here)_  
> **Author's Notes:** Thanks goes to momdaegmorgan for beta-ing.

The Doctor leaned back against the marble pillar behind him, eyes seeking out Rose. She was there, across the square, the colorful dancers obscuring his view of her every few seconds. The music drifting in the cool night air did its best to accompany the myriad voices reaching his ears from the revelers.

She looked happy, he thought. For the first time in a long time, she looked genuinely happy; smiling up at the boy she'd spent most of the evening with.

His fingers tightened around the thin stem of his glass.

Well. Feeling the stem beginning to crack, he tossed back the rest of his drink and then set the glass on a nearby table. She deserved a little happiness. With Mickey gone now, off playing hero in a parallel universe, and her parallel father from the same universe rejecting her... it was good to see her smiling again.

It'd be nice if it he was the one making her happy, but this was good too.

He was probably just being selfish. Just because the beach planet with the giant, multi-colored jellyfish hadn't cheered her up, didn't mean anything. Nor did the fact that she'd barely managed a smile on Frilledjin when she saw its floating city.

All his ramblings had gone to waste then, he knew. She hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention.

But then they'd come here, to Ralstinta. A nice happy planet, with nice happy people, who wanted nothing more than to spend two nights a week partying in nice happy bliss.

Today had been nice. Better than nice. The first real Rose-smile he'd spotted in what felt like forever had him feeling lighter. But then he'd seen the person making her smile. She really seemed to have a way of attracting the pretty boys.

Always the pretty ones.

Pushing his thoughts away, he decided he'd had enough of brooding. Not that he was. Time Lords didn't brood. Certainly not. They... thought a lot. Were pensive. Meditative. Contemplative. Not like he sat around thinking about why Rose didn't seem happy anymore when she was around him. Nah. He'd simply been brood-- reflecting on the best ways to get his companion back to her old self.

Straightening away from the pillar, the Doctor spotted Rose through the throng of revelers and headed toward her. The admirer that'd been hanging around her all night was still there. He wasn't really sure he liked the boy at all. Didn't trust him. Well. Didn't like him.

He was shifty, that boy was. All blonde hair and roaming eyes. With hands that probably wanted to roam as much as his eyes did.

Slipping past a particularly loud, drunken man who was trying his level best to kiss the equally drunk woman with him, the Doctor very nearly ended up snogged by the both of them. He wiped his cheek off, struggling out of their arms and legs, which were grabbing, pulling, seizing everything within reach in an effort to draw the other closer.

"Oi," he griped, finally freeing himself from them. He paused to smooth out his suit, raising an annoyed eyebrow at the creases on his arms from the grabby hands. Nothing for it now. He was stuck in a wrinkled suit until they went back to the TARDIS. Just as well. It was a nice excuse. Not that he needed one.

But the boy was shifty!

Rose was sitting on a bench, watching said boy walk away, a frown on her brow. She looked deep in thought.

Dropping down next to her with a heavy sigh, the Doctor bumped her shoulder with his own. "Plum tuckered out yet? Sick of all of this happiness? Miss the TARDIS? Wanna leave? Excellent!" He clapped his hands together and stood up, waiting for her.

She didn't move. Her eyes found his, as if just noticing him for the first time.

That annoyed him. His own eyes slid back to the boy. Still shifty.

"Lou leave ya, then?" His mouth twitched, anticipating the annoyed glare she'd send him. The humor she'd fight, but he'd be able to see no matter how hard she tried to deny it.

She nodded.

Well that wasn't any fun. No smiling. No telling him the boy's name was Lewristronal, thank you very much, and please don't shorten it to belittle him.

"Rose?" Concern flitted through him. Had the boy done something to her? "What's wrong?" He sat back down again, turning to face her.

She shrugged a bit, less of an effort, more of a careless movement. "Just thinking, that's all. About something Lewristronal said. Same thing Adam, Jack, and Mickey all said. I knew it was true, even back then. And I liked that it was." She picked up a glass from beside her, eyeing the contents with a passive look. "'It'd take a better man than me to come between you and the Doctor.'"

The Doctor frowned. Why was she upset over that? He certainly agreed with the words. Adam and Mickey hadn't stood a chance of coming between them. Jack, though, he had. Hadn't he? Not that he'd ever given the captain the opportunity. The jealousy his previous incarnation had displayed had Jack backing off rather quickly.

He was still rather proud of that.

"They were wrong," Rose continued, tossing back the rest of the amber liquid in her glass while watching a couple dancing nearby.

"What?" His brain was certainly capable of coming up with better responses than that, but at the moment, he was too startled to do more than stare at her.

Her eyes followed the dancing couple so closely that he turned to see what was so captivating about them.

It was a woman in a yellow gown, reminiscent of 17th Century Earth ball gowns. Her dark blonde hair was up in a sweeping style with small tendrils framing her face. The man with her was wearing a brown suit. There was nothing special about them at all. They were a handsome couple certainly, but that didn't help him to understand Rose's fascination with them.

She was watching the couple with a sad smile. Suddenly, she shook herself and stood up, glancing down at him. "All it took was a better woman."

His eyes slid back to the dancing couple, finally noticing a slight resemblance to Reinette and... oh.


	2. Better Woman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose is enlightened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Title:** Better Woman  
> **Character/Pairing:** Ten/Rose  
> **Rating:** Teen  
> **Genre:** Angst, romance  
> **Summary:** Sequel to Better Man.  
> **Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who.  
> **Author's Notes:** To momdaegmorgan for the beta, the idea, and the *ahem* encouragement, shall we say?

"Trust me," the Doctor pleaded.

Rose looked around them, at the home of Reinette, and he could see that she didn't.

Knowing this was going to be hard for both of them, he came to a halt, pressing the fingers of his free hand lightly to her lips. "We need to stay quiet." He started to move his hand, then warned, "As a mouse," before dropping his arm to his side. Gesturing for her to look around the corner, he drew in a breath and waited.

Down the hall just a ways, was Reinette. And him. He had his back to the wall, while Reinette pressed herself against him, breasts spilling out of her gown, smile lifting her lips, her perfect beauty focused entirely on him.

He couldn't say he'd been unaffected.

Rose pulled back angrily, opening her mouth to protest, but he shook his head, pressing his lips shut tight.

When voices floated to them from the other couple, he gently nudged her closer to the corner. She reluctantly glanced around it, fingers clutching the fabric on the walls, nails digging into the wallpaper.

Reinette's voice was light and airy as she spoke, and he could remember the feel of her body pressed tightly to his. Remember how he'd felt disappointed that it wasn't Rose instead.

"I am sure they will be fine, Doctor. Did you not say so yourself only an hour past?"

His own voice drifted down the hall in response. "Yes, I did, and I'm sure she's fine. She can take care of herself, oh, she's brilliant, is Rose. But she's also a bit jeopardy-friendly."

Reinette's smile had dropped into a pout and her eyes had closed as she gave a heaving-bosom sort of sigh. "Every other word out of your mouth is Rose, Doctor. Rose this, Rose that." She waved a hand in the air, lips pouting even further as she moved in closer, sliding her hands up to caress the back of his neck and tangle in his hair. Lowering her voice, she'd slid a hand down to his chest, planting her palm flush against his hearts. "Rose is but a child, Doctor. I--" she pressed her lips to his and didn't pull back as she continued to speak. "I am a woman."

Then she'd kissed him.

He felt Rose's body tense beside him. Settling his hands softly, but firmly, on her shoulders, he slid one down to caress the middle of her back.

Though eventually he'd grabbed Reinette and pushed her away, tearing his lips from hers, he'd allowed her to kiss him. Let it happen far longer than he should've and now Rose knew that.

But this was what the Doctor wanted her to see. That he'd stopped Reinette from kissing him. And--

"I need to get back to Rose-- to the ship."

That was the first time he'd felt unsettled by Reinette, when he saw her smirk and heard her haughty voice. "I saw into your mind, Doctor."

Involuntarily, he tightened his grip on Rose's shoulder, knowing what was coming, bracing himself for it. She glanced at him with a frown, holding his gaze for a few seconds before tearing her eyes from his, and, listening intently, peered carefully around the corner again.

"I saw your feelings for her," Reinette was saying, and he could still feel her fingers trailing down his cheek. "For the child. For Rose Tyler, a common shop girl." She'd leaned forward and whispered, in a near taunt, "You are in love with her."

Rose's back went ramrod straight as she swung her head toward him. They both heard his voice, stiff and angry, but neither paid it much attention anymore. Reinette and the other him continued to converse as Rose stared at him. "Is that true?"

"That's none of your business," the other him said, and he couldn't have agreed less.

He nodded, taking Rose's hand in his. "Yes."

"Doctor, you may love the child--"

"You're going too far," the other Doctor warned Reinette, but she spoke right over him.

"--but I love you, and I think you care for me as well." There was a moment of silence but for a rustle of skirts from Reinette and an indrawn breath from Rose. "You do not even know if she cares for you as you do for her. With me, you can be assured of my feelings."

"Rose," he whispered, settling his free hand on her cheek.

Heart pounding in time with his thoughts, he watched Rose lift her head, no longer hiding her feelings from him. It was there in her eyes, in her lips as she opened them to speak, then closed them with a nod of her head. And he could see that, yes, she loved him too.

"I do care for you, Reinette. I do, but it's only been a few hours since I first met you and you were a child then."

"_She is a child _now," Reinette snapped.__

Rose frowned at the wall, beyond which he was busy detangling himself from Reinette's grabby hands and limbs.

"That's enough," his voice rang out, clear and angry.

The Doctor tightened his fingers around Rose's and quickly drew her down the corridor with him. He had brought her here to witness that exchange... had wanted her to know his feelings. To know that he loved her. That he was _in love with her._

That no other woman could hold his attention more than momentarily next to her.

Two corridors away, she came to a halt, drawing him to one as well. "Wait." She smiled and the full wattage of that smile, as it always did, nearly felled him.

A flood of fondness went through him, and his love for her grew like the Grinch's heart. Taking the two steps needed to close the distance between them, he watched her for a moment before brushing his knuckles lightly along her cheek.

Her eyes slid shut for a moment, then opened again with a heated gaze. "Looks like the better woman didn't win after all.

His own lips turned up in a soft smile. "You're wrong," he told her, bending down to kiss her. "She did."


End file.
